scholarly journals The Return of Death in Times of Uncertainty—A Sketchy Diagnosis of Death in the Contemporary ‘Corona Crisis’

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
pp. 131
Author(s):  
Michael Hviid Jacobsen ◽  
Anders Petersen

For most parts of human history, death was an integral part of life, something that prehistoric and premodern man had no other option than to live with as best as possible. According to historians, death was familiar and tamed, it was at the center of social and cultural life. With the coming of modern secular society, death was increasingly sequestrated and tabooed, moved to the outskirts of society, made invisible and forbidden. Death became a stranger, and the prevalent attitude towards death was that of alienation. At the threshold of the 21st century, the topic of death again began to attract attention, becoming part of a revived death attitude described as ‘Spectacular Death’. In the article, the authors diagnose, analyze, and discuss the impact of the return of death during the current ‘Corona Crisis’, arguing that despite the fact that the concern with death is at the very core of the management of the crisis, death as such remains largely invisible. In order to provide such a diagnosis of the times, the authors initially revisit the prevailing death attitudes in the Western world from the Middle Ages to the present day.

2020 ◽  
pp. 105-123
Author(s):  
Andrii Shymanovych

Annotation: The article contains the research concerning the possible impact of Karl Barth`s figure and theological issues on the theology of the 20th century and the first decades of the 21st century. There is a comparative analysis of how powerful and significant was the level of impact of Barth`s scientific experience on the theologians of his era, in comparison with the most prominent representatives of Christian thought from the earlier centuries, beginning with the times of ancient church, the Middle Ages, the 16th century protestant Reformation, as well as his contemporaries. As it was clarified, Karl Barth made a striking impulse for the further radical deconstruction of what is considered to be the achievements of 19th`s century liberal protestant theology (which made him a lot of detractors among his colleagues), made a loud accent on the necessity of the Christocentric approach to all the spheres of theology, newly updated, actualized and convincingly demonstrated the importance of ancient church creeds and dogmas in the field of Triadology and Christology, as well as in an unusual way he intensified and revived the intellectual search in the protestant universities and academies by his reshaping and changing the paradigms of the whole western theology in a radical way. In the article were taken into account some reviews on Barth`s “Epistle to the Romans” (second edition, 1922), which caused lively discussions and prolonged controversy because of specific and non-standard hermeneutical approaches to the biblical text, which Barth demonstrated in this one of the most eminent theological works of the 20th century. The article reveals not only the attitude towards Barth`s theological heritage that was showed by his protestant colleagues, but also reveals the sincere admiration for his theology from some Orthodox researchers, in particular, the honored professor of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, John Karavidopulos, and the world famous specialist in the history of Christianity and medieval intellectual history, Jaroslav Jan Pelikan Jr., who converted to Orthodoxy in 1998. In the article`s conclusion there`s a piece of information concerning the fact that the impact of Barth`s dogmatics and hermeneutics on the modern departments of theology is not so noticeable as one might expect. In particular, we can make such a conclusion because of (1) the absence of true consolidation and common vision about the methods of theologizing between the western universities and church seminaries, (2) the popularity of so called “natural theology” which nowadays often seems to be regarded as an important prerequisite for all further theological researches, while Barth himself was a categorical opponent of this discourse, (3) the domination of binary opposition between conservatives and liberals in context of some modern theological discussions, while Karl Barth always tried to organically combine his devotion to the protestant orthodoxy with his efforts to be relevant and adequate to the requirements of his time.


2012 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-25
Author(s):  
Michael Joseph Giovannetti

The Renaissance, French for “rebirth”; Italian, Rinascimento, from re - “again” and nascere -“to be born”, was a cultural movement that initiated in Florence, Italy, in the Late Middle Ages and later spread to the rest of Europe, encompassing periods from the Fourteenth to the Seventeenth Century.  This time was focused on the improvement of various disciplines, through a revival of ideas from antiquity, by employing new, creative approaches to thinking and doing.  The influence of the Renaissance movement affected art, literature, philosophy, politics, science, religion, politics and other aspects of intellectual inquiry.   What does the Renaissance movement of Fourteenth Century Italy have to do with The Renaissance Group (TRG) of 21st century America?  The times and places may be very different, but as we review TRG’s contributions to teacher education from the 1980s to the present, a time during which The Renaissance Group laid a strong foundation to shape this national consortium of colleges, universities and professional organizations, we may discover more similarities between the two entities than imagined.  


2020 ◽  
Vol 03 (01) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hafiz Naveed Bin Shakeel

„Orientalism‟ is the term that means research and study about Eastern languages, cultures and religions (specially related to Quran, Seerah & Islamic History) by Western scholars or thinkers; and the term „Orientalist‟ is used for those who made the research. Orientalists have done much research work on Islam and founded many primary sources of Islamic history. They have also translated Islamic books into different languages. Their work on Seerah (peace be upon him) has great impact on both Western and Islamic worlds. Obviously, this contribution is very useful for Western world as well as Muslim world. But on the other hand, sometimes orientalists misinterpreted the message of Islam, messenger (peace be upon him) of Islam and Quran. The article describes the activities of such biased orientalists of current era. In 21st century, many groups of orientalists are active which can be divided into traditional, biased, unbiased and reconciliated groups. Many biased Orientalists perform a vital role to instill fear of Islam and Muslims in the hearts and minds of Western nations. They invent and give new terminologies to West such as „Clash of Civilizations‟, „Islamic Fundamentalism‟, „Islamic Terrorism‟, „Islamic Extremism‟, „Radical Islam‟, „Militant Islam‟, „Moderate Islam‟, „Reformers‟, „Secular Muslims‟, „Free Thinkers‟, etc. In this article we have focused on biased orientalists and discussed the impact of orientalism on present Western world and on Islamic World as well.


2019 ◽  
Vol 193 (3) ◽  
pp. 529-546
Author(s):  
Tomasz Szulc

The Neisse Garrison always held a strategic position starting with its es-tablishment in the Early Middle Ages until the end of the 20th century. Its convenient location in the Sudety Foothills meant that it served de-fence functions protecting this area from both attacks from the north and the south. Over the centuries relations between the city and the military underwent numerous transformations depending on who con-trolled it. In the times of the Bishop’s Duchy and the rule of Habsburg only small troops stationed in the garrison, and the security of the whole area was provided by bulwarks. In 1741, after Neisse was seized by Frederick II, the town acquired enormous significance. The symbiosis between Neisse and the military, which lasted for the subsequent 260 years, had a considerable influence on the development and im-portance of the town. As a result of changes which took place in the Polish Army on the turn of the 20th and 21st century, the Neisse Garri-son was closed down.


2018 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 295-296
Author(s):  
Peter Pabisch

Abstract The three scholarly works of recent years illuminate the versatility of their main editor Albrecht Classen in the interdisciplinary world of comparative studies, in literature and language studies. Together with his colleague Eva Parra-Membrives he offers insights on trivial literature also in view of bestsellers concerning the first two works under discussion here. The third work on multilingualism in the middle ages he edited alone. For all the works he found an impressive number of contributors who fill the chalice of offerings in a most versatile canon of topics.


Risks ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 59
Author(s):  
Grzegorz Ignatowski ◽  
Łukasz Sułkowski ◽  
Bartłomiej Stopczyński

Nepotism and cronyism are forms of favoritism towards certain people in the workplace. For this reason, they constitute a problem for organization managers, ethicists and psychologists. Identifying the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the increase of nepotism and cronyism may provide a basis for organizations to assess their extent and to take possible measures to prevent their negative effects. At the same time, the research presented in the article may provide a basis for further research work related to nepotism and cronyism at the times of other threats, different from the pandemic. The aim of the article is to examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on growing acceptance for nepotism and cronyism in Polish enterprises. Qualitative and quantitative methods have been included in the conducted research. Qualitative study aimed at improving knowledge of nepotism and cronyism and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on these phenomena, followed by a quantitative study conducted in order to verify the information obtained in the qualitative study. This research has demonstrated that Nepotism and cronyism in the workplace, are phenomenon that are basically evaluated negatively. They adversely influences social and economic development, but the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on nepotism and cronyism is not significant.


2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 1043-1055
Author(s):  
Gaby Umbach

This article1 offers reflections on the use of data as evidence in 21st century policy-making. It discusses the concept of evidence-informed policy-making (EIPM) as well as the governance and knowledge effects of data as evidence. With this focus, it interlinks the analysis of statistics and politics. The paper first introduces the concept of EIPM and the impact of evidence use. Here it focusses on science and knowledge as resources in policy-making, on the institutionalisation of science advice and on the translation of information and knowledge into evidence. The second part of the article reflects on data as evidence. This part concentrates on abstract and concrete functions of data as governance tools in policy-making, on data as a robust form of evidence and on the effects of data on knowledge and governance. The third part highlights challenges for data as evidence in policy-making, among them, politicisation, transparency, and diversity as well as objectivity and contestation. Finally, the last part draws conclusions on the production and use of data as evidence in EIPM. Throughout the second part of the reflections, reference is made to Walter Radermacher’s 2019 matrix of actors and activities related to data, facts, and policy published in this journal.


Cancers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (15) ◽  
pp. 3745
Author(s):  
Hélène Vellemans ◽  
Marc P. E. André

Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) is a lymphoid-type hematologic disease that is derived from B cells. The incidence of this lymphoid malignancy is around 2–3/100,000/year in the western world. Long-term remission rates are linked to a risk-adapted approach, which allows remission rates higher than 80%. The first-line treatment for advanced stage classical HL (cHL) widely used today is doxorubicin, bleomycin, vinblastine, and dacarbazine (ABVD) or escalated bleomycin, etoposide, doxorubicin, cyclophosphamide, vincristine, procarbazine, and prednisone (BEACOPPesc) chemotherapy. Randomized studies comparing these two regimens and a recently performed meta-analysis have demonstrated consistently better disease control with BEACOPPesc. However, this treatment is not the standard of care, as there is an excess of acute hematological toxicities and therapy-related myeloid neoplasms. Moreover, there is a recurrent controversy concerning the impact on overall survival with this regimen. More recently, new drugs such as brentuximab vedotin and checkpoint inhibitors have become available and have been evaluated in combination with doxorubicin, vinblastine, and dacarbazine (AVD) for the first-line treatment of patients with advanced cHL with the objective of tumor control improvement. There are still major debates with respect to first-line treatment of advanced cHL. The use of positron emission tomography-adapted strategies has allowed a reduction in the toxicity of chemotherapy regimens. Incorporation of new drugs into the treatment algorithms requires confirmation.


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